Samuel Clemens

Who was the real Mark Twain? In the end, “Mark Twain” himself wasn’t a real person—he was a pseudonym (and a persona) invented by Samuel Clemens and he was perhaps the greatest popular culture superstar of his time. As a novelist, essayist and public speaker, Clemens occupied a spot at the zenith of public attention. Without the 19th- and 20th-century equivalents of TMZ and tabloid newspapers, however, we have very little evidence of what Clemens was like behind the Twain facade. But in the new novel Twain’s End (Gallery Books, 2015), author Lynn Cullen sheds new light on what might have been the complicated relationship between Clemens and his private secretary, Isabel Lyon. In March 1909, Twain happily gave his…

Happy birthday, Mark Twain! You’re 179 years old, but America still loves you—in fact, Smithsonian magazine has just ranked you the country’s number one pop icon ever. Number one—ahead of Elvis Presley, Madonna, Bob Dylan, and Michael Jackson. Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is, of course, America’s most important literary figure. But it’s not just iconic works like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (widely considered to be the first great American novel), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Prince and the Pauper that help assure a special place for Twain in America’s heart. It’s also his indomitable personality, keen wit, and dedication as a satirist and social critic that’s kept his image…